Marquez Criticizes Crawford’s Weight Jump for Canelo Clash: ‘He Looked Slow Against Madrimov, Two More Divisions Is Too Much

Boxing great Juan Manuel Marquez says he doesn’t like the fight between Terence Crawford and unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in September in a Riyadh Season event in Las Vegas.

Power vs. Size

Marquez feels there are weight classes for a reason in the sport, and he thinks it’s a bad idea for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to go up two divisions from 154 to 168 to fight Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) in that division. He notes that Crawford, 37, looked slow and lacked power in his last fight, moving up from 147 to face Israil Madrimov at 154 for his WBA title.

Now, for Crawford to go up another two weight classes to fight Canelo at super middleweight, Martinez thinks it’s “not good for him.” Crawford has been bulking up since his fight with Madrimov, and he reportedly weighed 186 lbs last week. However, that extra weight will make Crawford slower, and it might not bring any extra power.

Sometimes, fighters gain power when they bulk up, but in a lot of cases, it doesn’t. Canelo is used to fighting bigger guys who were born with huge power, and Crawford isn’t going to magically transform himself into possessing Golovkin-esque power by bulking up. It’s just going to make him big and slow and tire him out faster.

Crawford turns 38 in September, and he looked it this week in an interview. Unless Crawford can find the fountain of youth to make him young again, he’s going to be a 40-ish fighter, coming off a 13-month layoff, with a lot of extra pounds that he’s lugging around. It’s dumb.

Crawford’s Slowdown

“I don’t like the fight because, in the sport of boxing, we have divisions. Terence Crawford is a good fighter at lightweight, light welterweight, welterweight, and super welterweight,” said Juan Manuel Marquez to Fight Hub TV about his thoughts on Terence Crawford moving up two divisions from 154 to challenge Canelo Alvarez at 168 for his world titles in September.

“I remember when Terence Crawford fought [Israil] Madrimov. He looked slow without power and two more divisions [up to 168], it’s a tough fight for Terence Crawford. He’s a great fighter, good defense, and he’s got good combination punching. But I think the [super middleweight] weight class is no good for him.”